When I realised that Rococo have been in the business of producing fine quality chocolate for over twenty five years I felt slightly ashamed that I hadn’t come across their products before. Fate plays strange tricks on us after all.

This bar was created especially for Chocolate Week and is an homage to Mexican chocolate making. Alongside the 65% cocoa dark chocolate we have orange oil and pink and black pepper. All of the ingredients are organic, which means that they deliver peak flavour.

The chocolate is superb – soft, quick to melt with a great mouthfeel and rich, dark cocoa notes which sit over a gentle underlying citrus note. Encounter a fragment of pepper and the whole taste experiences switches gear as the spice imparts warmth and spicy high notes. The very nature of the bar means that the peppery element is intermittent and tends to come as the chocolate breaks down in the mouth. As your teeth find the pepper fragments they release their fire into the mix, imparting peaks of intense spice to the dark cocoa and orange base.

This is quite complex chocolate. A well balanced cocoa/citrus alliance which floods the mouth with Rococo’s own version of that tried and tested partnership, and with added fire. I loved the cocoa flavours, was nodding in appreciation of the blending of the orange oil, and smiling as little pepper bombs went off in my mouth. Excellent stuff, and highly recommended for the more adventurous among you.